Posts tagged ‘arkansas’

They say that to be a successful musician, you must travel. Well, Jeremy has been travelling quite a bit this year. This past weekend was no exception. He was scheduled to play in Little Rock, AR with the Ghost Town Blues Band on Friday night. This was going to be two gigs, one from 9 PM – 12 AM at Cajun’s Wharf and the other from 1 AM – 4:30 AM at Midtown Billiards. Then we were supposed to drive the 2 hours back to Memphis, and Jeremy was going to ride 8 hours with Darren Jay and the Delta Souls to Pensacola Beach, FL for a two day gig at Paradise Bar and Grill/Inn. Simple enough, right? Nothing is ever that simple in my life. LOL. Friday rolled around, and I was contacted just before we had to leave for Little Rock. Of course, the bass player for the FL gig got sick and couldn’t make it. Not only that, but the equipment trailer that was supposed to come in for the trip didn’t make it in time, so Jeremy was going to have to drive as if he wanted to make the gig. Well, this was the predicament: I was not prepared for a trip to FL, and I would HAVE to be there to help drive if Jeremy really wanted to go to FL because we would be driving from Little Rock to Pensacola after doing 8 hours worth of gigs the night before. I explained the situation, and Darren said they would give up the hotel room for us if I came. So, there I was packing for a road trip I was not expecting to go on.

We left at 4:45 Pm, just the two of us in our little Honda Civic. We had all of his equipment and one suitcase for the two of us. After all, this was going to be a short trip. Even though we left early, the rest of the band didn’t leave until an hour after we did. We made good time and made it to Cajun’s Wharf almost two hours before the gig. I couldn’t believe it, actually. We were ahead of schedule for something. I was hoping the rest of the trip went this smooth. The rest of GTBB arrived about an hour and a half later, quickly unloaded and started their gig. Things seemed to go smooth, but I should’ve known this was too good to be true. As we were breaking down the equipment at the end of the first gig, the sound man dropped a mic stand on Suavo’s trombone and bent the slide. Of course, this is his last working trombone, and nobody offered to pay for it. We finished packing up, everyone talking about how much the trombone situation sucked.

We arrived at Midtown Billiards around 1, and we got set up pretty quickly. While I was waiting on the guys to do sound check and start, I got super tired. I knew that if I was going to make any type of a drive toward FL, that I would have to get some sleep, so I crashed out in the car behind the venue. Jeremy woke me up as he was finishing loading his equipment into the car after the gig. It was time to head for FL. We filled up for gas and agreed that I would take the first leg of the trip so Jeremy could get some rest. So we were off, headed a little over 9 hours south through Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to Pensacola Beach, FL.